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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

(Mfm...- ----- G0pgriq|i ^t. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



/ 



A SUCCINCT HISTORY 



OF 



THE SABBATH DAY 



CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM THE OLD 
AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 






. J^7. '&^>-y},4> ^ 6MS'IP\.^S^.< 



" Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither 
shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the command- 
ments of the Lord your God which I command you." — Deut. 

IV. 2. 

"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of 
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of 
life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are writ- 
ten in this book. — Rev. xxii. 19. 



.:/..>/, 



NASHVILLE, TENN., 

EGONOMICAL PRINT, COR. COLLEGE AND UNION STREETS. 

1879. 



r 



,C1 






INTRODUCTION. 



IjlJiHE differences of opinion which prevail on the sub- 
JL ject of the Sabbath day, as well in the church as 
out of it, preclude the necessity of an apology for at- 
tempting to deduce from the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Testaments, which are held and admitted by the 
writer as the divinely inspired word of God, a succinct, 
and as far as possible a correct, history of that 
institution. 

It is true thatj almost the entire Christian world 
fully recognizes a sacred character of that day, and a 
very solemn duty to observe it. Nevertheless, it is 
quite remarkable how far individual proclivities, neces- 
sities and interests modify individual consciences. In 
tact, after a general acknowledgment of certain great 
duties of the day, each man's conscience becomes a 
law to himself, and instances are very rare where you 
can find two pious minds fully agreed upon the details 
of Sabbath duties. 

The religious views which we entertain, however we 
may flatter ourselves that we think for ourselves, are 
often, unconsciously, the mere adoption of the opinions 
of others, without the process of ratiocination on our 
own part. 

The child who has been taught at the knees of a 
pious mother, a religious dogma, in a large majority 



Jf Introduction. 

of instances will die in the belief of the same ; and the 
more he venerates the memory of his mother, the 
harder it will be for him to throw off the error in case 
his mother shall have been mistaken. Happily the 
converse is true also. It is hard to seduce one into 
error of opinion who has imbibed the truth from his 
mother in infancy or childhood. 

Martin Luther, so honest, so sincere and so brave, 
that when his friends advised him against going to 
Worms to be tried for his heresies, replied that he 
would go if every tile on every house in Worms were 
a devil. He did go, and God preserved the great re- 
former. But he had been reared in the church of 
Rome, and though he renounced most of her errors, 
he never got over the idea that the elements of the 
last supper were worthy of worship. If it was so 
with Luther, it is likely to be much more so with the 
average mind, and unless some accident lifts it out of 
its accustomed rut, it is quite likely to run in it until 
death. 

Circumstances not necessary to mention, many years 
ago directed the mind of the writer to this subject. 
His aim was to find some well defined path of duty 
for the Sabbath day, which he thought surely the word 
of God would give if faithfully studied. He has 
studied it at least zealously, and his mind has been 
brought by the investigation to conclusions so differ- 
ent from those almost universally entertained, that he 
has determined to reduce them to writing, and perhaps 
publication. That his opinions will not add any thing 
to his popularity with the general religious v/orld, he 
feels quite sure ; but if the cause of truth may be 



Introdiiction. 5 

forwarded by his efforts, in even a small degree, he 
will cheerfully abide all the consequences. 

We live in an age and country where every man is 
theoretically considered free to enjoy and express his 
religious opinions. It is really not quite so in practice, 
but the time has come when opinions must all be sub- 
mitted to the crucible of strict examination, and anti- 
quated dogmas can not avoid the ordeal by taking re- 
fuge behind the centuries of their age. 

It has been found necessary heretofore to review 
some of these venerable opinions, which had been 
held sacred for ages, and to doubt which were fatal 
heresies. And when Galileo demonstrated and prop- 
agated the truth of the Copernican theor}^ of the solar 
system, it was thought that if true, it would overthrow 
the truth of Revelation, and on pain of death he was 
compelled to renounce it. Nevertheless it was true, 
and it did not overthrow the Scripture. So it will 
ever be. God is the author of all truth, and no one 
need fear that His truths will destroy each other. 

Some of the very best of Christians are firmly per- 
:suaded that if the Sabbath were overthrown the church 
would perish also, or some other great calamity would 
befal us. But let us have faith that God's truth will 
prevail, and as he has given us our reason to use, let 
us go together to His Word, learn what it teaches and 
obey it, fearing no evil. 



6 History of the Sabbath Day. 



PART FIRST. 



CHAPTER I. 

fHE world, even the Christian world, is divided in 
their views on the question, Whether God made 
the heavens and the earth and all that in them is, in 
the short space of six days, as we now count time, or 
whether that great work occupied six periods of time, 
which might represent millions, or billions, or trillions 
of our years. Happily this question does not disturb 
our investigation, as our problem will work as well 
under one hypothesis as the other. It is a necessary 
preliminary, however, to refer to the week of creation, 
as whatever the length of days might have been, it is 
generally conceded that the week of creation is the 
type of our week of seven days. 

The first day's creation was light ; the second, the 
firmament ; the third, the dry land, grass, herbs and 
fruit trees ; the fourth, the sun, moon and stars ; the 
fifth, the living inhabitants of the waters and the fowls 
of the air; on the sixth, God created the dry-land 
animals and man ; on the seventh day he rested, and 
these seven days constitute the first week of creation. 

Over the second chapter of Genesis we find written, 
*' The first Sabbath," placed there either by the trans- 
lators of the authorized version, or by some editor. 



History of the Sabbath Day. 7 

The phrase is, as they say of well executed counter- 
feits, well calculated to deceive, and no doubt has de- 
ceived thousands of persons who read no further than 
the caption, or read carelessly, into the belief that 
that chapter contained a Sabbath, when in fact it does 
not name much less enact such an institution. 

This brings us to the important question, What is 
the Sabbath ? Its etymology indeed would indicate 
only a rest day. But the most zealous Sabbatarian 
will not contend that this is a full or perfect definition. 
They all consider it a day specially set apart for rest 
by statutory enactment or ordination. 

If in nothing else they are certainly correct in this. 
It is not a day on which one may rest, but one on 
which he must rest. And when we arrive at the time 
when the institution was ordained, we shall find it 
clothed with the most solemn sanctions and the most 
severe penalties. 

The three first verses of the chapter under review 
are as follows : 

1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the 
host of them. 

2. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had 
made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which 
he had made. 

3. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it ; because 
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and 
made 

These are the only verses in the chapter which can 
possibly have any reference to the Sabbath. And if it 
takes a command, or a hint, or an admonition to make 
a law, it will be seen at once that the language quoted 
contains neither the one or the other, to say nothing 



S tiistorij of the Sabbath Day. 

about a penalty, which is indispensable to the enforce- 
ment of a penal law. 

God blessed the seventh day, and as he had pre- 
viously blessed the animate and commended the in- 
animate works of his power and now blesses the 
seventh day, the meaning of the word is somewhat 
obscure. It is not so, however, with the word sanctify. 
That means to set apart for a holy purpose, and was, 
doubtless, used in that sense in the passage under 
review. 

The inspired Moses, who wrote the book, knew what 
was in the mind of God in regard to the seventh day 
and recorded it. It was not necessary that Adam 
should know it, nor is there any ground to snppose 
that he did. He had not fallen, had no work to do, 
and therefore needed no rest ; for he had no duties 
which required the use of his faculties to fatigue. 
Indeed, we cannot predicate fatigue of the omnipotent 
God, "who spake and it was done, who commanded 
and it stood fast;" and we must perforce take the dec- 
laration of his resting on the seventh day, only as 
meaning that he ceased from his work because the 
work was done. But he blessed and sanctified the 
seventh day, because that in it he had rested or ceased 
from all his works of creation; and at this time fore- 
ordained institutions, more than one, which in the far 
future he would establish on that day, and in honor or 
commemoration of the day of his own rest. 

The conscientious enquirer is requested to bear this 
point in mind, as it will be of importance when we 
come to consider the alleged change of the Sabbath to 
another day of the week. 



HUtory of the .^ahhatli Bay, 9 

The negative proofs, that Adam nor any of his suc- 
cessors ever knew a Sabbath for many centuries, might 
be elaborated much more fully than is herein done ; 
but as we shall, in the due chronological order of the 
history, quote the unequivocal declaration of God 
himself, that none of the predecessors of the children 
of Israel knew or had a Sabbath, we will not tres- 
pass on the time of the reader here further, than to 
notice one more passage of Scripture which, with the 
one already quoted, offer the only scripture proofs 
claiming the existence of a pre-Mosaic Sabbath. 

This passage is found in Gen. iv. 3, which has been 
time and again vaunted by v/riters on the subject, as 
proving that Cain and Abel knew and observed the 
Sabbath. The verse reads that, '' In process of time 
it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the 
ground an offering to the Lord," etc. 

The argument is, that " in process of tim.e " should 
be translated, at the " end of days,"' and that end of 
days means, " end of the week," and end of the week 
means the Sabbath. This is a very bold claim, seeing 
tiiat no such institution has been yet named in the 
text of the Scripture. But in fact, it would not clearly 
or even dimly refer to the Sabbath, if that institution 
had been already set up, as the reader will see by 
comparing it with the same phrase, as it occurs in 
Gen. xxxviii. 12, Exod. ii. 23, Judges xi. 4, and several 
other places. 

In not one of the passages compared does it bear 
any semblance to such a construction, but seems in 
each passage, on the contrary, to point to an uncertain 
time, as ''in due time," or "after a while." It is sin- 



10 History of the Sabbath Day. 

gularly strange that upon no better foundation than 
the two passages quoted, almost the whole world 
claims that the Sabbath is as old as Genesis. 

The structure of the law, acknowledged by all 
Christian commentators to be the first given to re- 
sponsible man, is worthy of consideration in compari- 
son with this hypothetical law of the Sabbath. God 
said to Adam in relation to the forbidden fruit, 'Thou 
shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest 
thereof thou shalt surely die." That is the style in 
which God has given all his laws, *'thou shalt," or 
*'thou shalt not." We shall see that when he did give 
the law of the Sabbath, he did not depart from the 
custom. 

The book of Genesis brings us down to the year of 
the world, 2369, and we have passed through it; read 
the history of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
and of Joseph and the Israelites in Egypt, through 
the greater part of their captivity, and not a trace have 
we found of a Sabbath. One would have expected the 
boy prophet, who had familiar intercourse with his 
God and who was moreover the chosen of God's 
chosen people, if any body on earth would know of 
the existence of the holy Sabbath day, to have been 
the one. We know that the ordinance of circumcision 
was carried down into Egypt, and the practice kept up; 
and we know from universal ecclesiastical history and 
admission, that the Sabbath was not. And why not, 
if it existed ? 

Mr. Watson, high ecclesiastical authority, says that 
the Sabbath was revived in the wilderness after having 
been lost and disused, but he gives no proofs. 



Histoi^y of the Sabbath Day. 11 



CHAPTER II. 

fVVENTY-FIVE hundred and thirteenth years of 
the world's history (Bible Chron.) have passed by, 
and Moses is abont to lead the children of Israel out 
of captivity. Had he been an uninspired reformer and 
been disposed to revive that ordinance alleged to have 
been lost, he vvould no doubt have been at a great loss 
to set a day on which to revive it It will be remem- 
bered that God blessed and sanctified the seventh (not 
Sabbath) day, because that in it he had rested from all 
his work which God created and made. It is most 
reasonable to suppose that in the long and dark slavery 
of the Israelites amongst strangers, speaking a strange 
language, they would have been sadly at fault if God 
had, without instruction, commanded them to set apart 
the seventh day (which He^ad before blessed and 
sanctified) to any holy purpose. He removes that 
difficulty at once in the xii. chapter of Exodus : 

1. And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of 
Egypt, saying, 

2. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it 
shall be the first month of the year to you. 

The sequel shows also that it was the beginning of 
the week as well as the month and vear — in fact, a 
repetition as it were of the beginning of time at the 
creation. 

3. Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, in the 
tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb. 
according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: 



1£ History of the Sahhalh Bay, 

4. And if the household be to little for the lamb, let hhn and 
his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number 
of the souls; every man according to his eatiug shall make your 
count for the lamb. 

6. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same 
month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall 
kill it in the evening. 

14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall 
keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall 
keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. 

This is the ordinance of the passover, and was in- 
stituted on the second seventh day of the new month 
of time, and recalls our attention to Gen. ii. 3, where 
God blessed and sanctified the seventh day without 
giving any explanation or any intention on the subject. 
We see now that one of the purposes of its sanctifica- 
tion is fulfilled, and shall in a few weeks see another, 
which will make two striking purposes which were in 
the mind of God when he pronounced that benediction ; 
and considering that with God a thousand years is as 
a day, it would be about as if a man should make 
some great promise and fulfil it in two days and a-half 
It has been fulfilled in these instances 1500 years 
sooner than the cotemporary promise of the seed of 
the woman who was to bruise the serpent's head. 

The passover was eaten with loins girded and sandals 
on, and the journey of deliverance was comm.enced 
under the most striking evidences of God's favor and 
protection ever witnessed on earth. He provided them 
with a guide in the pillar of cloud by day and fire by 
night ; supplied their every need, but it seems not so 
rapidly as they wished ; and notwithstanding all that 
He had done, they were afraid to trust him for the 
luture and were constantly murmuring and complain- 



History of the Sabhath Day. 13 

ing. They had been without water three days, in 
Shur, and when they came to Morah they found water 
but could not drink it for its bitterness. They mur- 
mured against Moses and he appealed to God who 
taught him how to make the water good. And God 
placed them under new obligations, to which they 
promised obedience. Exodus xv. 26. 

He brought them to Elim where were twelve wells 
and seventy palm trees, where they camped* for some 
time. 

The Israelites (Ex. xvi.) took their journey from 
Elim and camped at Sin, which brings us up to the 
actual historical ground of the ordinance which we 
are studying. Let the word of God speak for itself, 
beginning with the 2nd verse we quote in the language 
of Moses all the chapter which relates to the Sabbath : 

2. And the whole congregation of the children of Isreal murmur- 
ed against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 

3. And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we 
had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we 
sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full ; for ye 
have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assem- 
bly with hunger. 

4. Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread 
from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a cer- 
tain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk 
in my law, or no. 

5. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall pre- 
pare that which they bring in; and ic shall be twice as much as 
they gather daily. 

6. And Moses and Aaron said unto the children of Israel, at even, 
then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the 
land of Egypt : 

7. And in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; 

for that he heareth your murmurings against the Lord: and what 
are we that ye murmur against us? 

8. And Moses said, This shall be, when the Lord shall give you 



IJf Ristory of the Sahhath Day, 

in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full; 
for the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against 
him, and what are we ? Your murmurings are not against us but 
against the Lord. 

9 And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation 
of the children of Israel, Come near before the Lord> for he hath 
heard your murmurings. 

10. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congre- 
gation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wil- 
derness and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. 

11. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: 

12. I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel ;, 
speak unto them saying, At even ye shall eat flesh and in the 
morning ye shall be filled with bread, and ye shall know that I am 
the Lord your God. 

13. And it came to pass that at even the quails came up and 
filled the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the 
host. 

14. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the 
face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as 
the hoar frost on the ground. 

15. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord 
hath given you to eat. 

16. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, gather 
of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, 
according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for 
;hem which are in his tents. 

17. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, 
some less. 

18. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered 
much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack ; 
they gathered every man according to his eating. 

19. And Moses said, let no man leave of it till the morning. 

This was a part of the probationary law, to gather 
just what they could eat and no more. 

20. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses ; but some 
of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank; 
and Moses was wroth with them. 

21. And they gathered it every morning every man according to 
his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. 



History of the Sabbath Day, 15 

22. And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice 
as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the 
congregation came and told Moses. 

23. And he said unto them, this is that which the Lord hath 
said, To morrow is the rest of /he holy Sabhath unto the Lord: bake that 
which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe ; and that 
which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning 

24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade : and it 
did not stink neither was there any worm therein. 

25 And Moses said, Eat that to-day, for to-day is a Sabbath unto 
the Lord ; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. 

26. Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day^ which is 
the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. 

27. And it came to pass that there went out some of the people 
on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. 

28. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep 
my commandments and my laws ? 

29. See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore he 
giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days ; abide ye every 
man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day, 

30. So the people rested on the seventh day. 

The chapter just quoted in part is one of the most 
remarkable in the bible, and merits more than a passing 
notice in this history. It is in this that the Sabbath 
makes its first appearance in the scriptures, that is, if 
the reader has become satisfied that nothing in the 
2nd or 4th chapters of Genesis can be construed to 
have reference to that institution. And if he has not 
become so satisfied, I doubt not he will when we come 
to quote in its proper chronological order the positive 
declaration of God to that effect. 

In the chapter we find that God, in an.swer to the 
reiterated murmurs and complaints of the children of 
Israel against God, and Moses, and Aaron, promises 
to give them bread from heaven; but as He had so 
wonderfully and so invariably preserved and protected 



16 History of the SaVbath Day, 

them in all their troubles, supplying every necessity, 
forgiving all their sins of rebellion and unbelief, and 
proving by a constant succession of miracles in their 
behalf, the source of such protection, He couples 
the promise with probationary laws ; gives them 
manna with a command to gather so much and no 
more each day, to sec whether they will walk in his 
laws or no. Moreover, He commands them to gather 
on the sixth day the bread of two days, indicating but 
not naming the coming Sabbath. He promised them 
also meat, and quails in abundance came into the camp 
on the evening (as it appears to the writer) of the 
seventh day, and were caught and killed by the Israel- 
ites on that day, showing that as yet it had not been 
sanctified as a day of rest to man. Notwithstanding 
all this they could not trust God for their daily supplies, 
and some of them violated the law, thus offending 
the Lord. 

The manna fell first, if our computation is correct, 
on the first day of the week and each successive day, 
melting when the sun was up, and they found that 
when they had attempted to keep some of it over it 
spoiled ; but when the sixth day came and they were 
commanded to gather two days supply it did not spoil. 
Still, under all these miraculous doings— miracles of 
the falling of the manna every day of the six ; of its 
being non-preservable on five of the days and preserv- 
able on the sixth and seventh— -they rebelled against 
God's laws and distrusted his providence. They were 
commanded not to look for it on the seventh day, 
which had been appointed the Sabbath, but some dis- 
obeyed and went out to gather it on the seventh day 



History of the SaVbuth Day. 1 7 

but found none. God was angry and said, "How long 
refuse yc to keep my commandments and my laws ?" 

**See, for the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, 
therefore he giv^eth you on the si.vth day the bread of 
two days, abide ye every one in his place ;" and doubles 
the injunction, which is clearly penal in its nature, by 
change of phrase, " let no man go out of his place on 
the seventh day." 

Tliat the sequestration of man on the Sabbath is 
penal, appears from the very nature of social man. 
He does not like solitude or separation from his fel- 
lows, and his repeated rebellion against God, as re- 
corded in this chapter, amply accounts for God*s 
inflicting on him that punishment. 

The Sabbath is fully established but not entirely 
completed, for as yet God has not added the death 
penalty for its violation. The fall of manna continued, 
as a miraculous proof of the sanctification of the 
sev^enth day, regularly on throughout all the journey 
of the Israelites until they crossed the Jordan and 
took possession of the promised land ; falling through- 
out the six days of the week and failing on the seventh. 
From this time on to the end of the Jewish scriptures, 
the terms Sabbath day and sev^enth day are synoni- 
mous and interchangeable. 

Exodus xxxi. 14. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore ; for it is 
holy unto you: every one that c'efileth it shall surely be put to 
death ; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be 
cut off from among his people. 

, And now the Sabbath stands a statute of the Lord, 
complete in all the elements of penal law, and has 
never in all the scripture so stood before. 



IS History of the SahbatJi Bay. 



CHAPTER III. 

fHREE months after the children of Israel departed 
out of Egypt, and about six weeks after they had 
left, the wilderness of Sin, where the Sabbath was 
instituted, they came to the wilderness of Sinai, and 
Moses went up into the mount and received the ten 
commandments, the fourth of which reads — 

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work ; hut the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 
Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son^ 
nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy 
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days 
the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and 
rested on the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath 
day and hallowed it. 

It is noteworthy here, that whereas, in Ex. xvi. 29, 
where the Sabbath is first proclaimed, God says, *'See, 
for the Lord hath given you the Sabbath," etc. Six 
weeks later, when that law is being reiterated, He says, 
" Remember the Sabbath,'' etc. The word remember 
will certainly be recognized as a very proper one to 
recall the mind to an institution only six weeks old. 
But it is not a little singular that almost every writer 
on the Sabbath, and their name is legion, refers the 
admonition back to the first week of creation. 

Another thing is worthy of particular notice, viz : 
tliat the reason assigned why God chose the seventh 
day for the Sabbath, is such, that the day thus ap- 
pointed must be the seventh and no other ; for the day 



History of the Sdhhath Day, 19 

that God rested or ceased from his works of creation 
could be no other than the seventh ; and allowing that 
it is impossible for God to contradict himself, He could 
not convert the seventh into any other day. 

And now that the Sabbath is unmistakably estab- 
lished and tied, by the word of God, to the seventh 
day, so that if God can untie it, surely no other authority 
can ; we leave it there for the present and proceed to 
enquire to whom and for whom it was given. There 
would be no difficulty in the solution of the question 
if we had always had the word without note or com- 
ment, for a plain reader would never have found a 
Sabbath until God's word had plainly stated it. But 
we have the commentaries, and while it is admitted 
that they are extremely useful and highly necessary^ 
it is one of the misfortunes attending them that they 
give great names great power to deceive, in case they 
may be deceived themselves. Such, in my view, is 
the case in this instance. 

The time and place of the institution of the ordin- 
ance points very significantly to the fact, that it was 
given to the Jews alone ; and where one declaration, 
admitted by all to be the plain word of God, establishes 
a fact, it is not necessary to quote texts to fatiguing 
lengths. We have been giving what we considered 
irrefutable negative proofs that the Sabbath was never 
instituted on earth until it was done in the wilderness 
of Sin, and promised to give positive proof on that 
issue, we quote from Deut. 5th chap. : 

1. And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them. Hear, O Israel, 
the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that 
ye may learn them, and keep and do them. 

2. The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 



W nislofy o'ftKe Sadlatn Bay. 

3. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with 
us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day. 

4. The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the 
midst of the fire. 

5. (I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you 
the word of the Lord ; for ye were afraid by the reason of the 
fire, and went not up into the mount;) saying, 

6. I am the Lord thy God, which brought ihee out of the land of 
Egypt, from the house of bondage. 

(Here follow ist, 2nd and 3rd commandments) 
4lh com. 

12. Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God 
hath commanded thee. 

13. Six days thou shalt labor, and do all thy work. 

14. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in 
it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine 
ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; 
that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. 

15. And remember that thou wast ii servant in the land of Egypt, 
and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty 
hand and by a stretched out arm : THEREFORE the Lord thy God 
commanded thee to keep the sabbath day. 

Ex. xxxi, 16, 17. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the 
Sabbath day throughout their generations. It is a sign between 
me and the children af Israel for ever. 

To show that the Institution was specially given to 
the Jews, and at the time herein specified, might be 
corroborated by various and many other quotations to 
the same effect, but these are deemed sufficient to 
prove the point if plain language can prove any thing. 

But as a distinguished writer, author of a prize 
essay on the Sabbath, has denied in general terms, 
making no specification, that the prophets Nehemiah 
and Ezekiel give any countenance to the theory herein 
advanced, it would hardly be proper to close these 
quotations without reference to them. Nehemiah 



History of iltc Sahhcdh Day, 21 

wrote at least a thousand years after Moses; in his 
ninth chapter he ^ijives the order of God's deah'ngs with 
his pecuh'ar people as follows : 

7. Chose Abrahnm and made a covenant with him. 
9. Saw their affliction in Egypt. 

12. Led them by a pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by night. 

13. Came dnwn upon mount Sinai, giving them commandments, 
statutes and laws. 

15. Made known unto them the holy Sabbath. 

16. (jave them bread from heaven and water from the rock, 

And continued his blessings throughout their journey 
tlirough the wilderness. 

Ezekiel, whose prophecy dates somewhere about 
B. C. 600, in chap, xx, giv^es the same chronological 
order of events in the wilderness, so that hardly a 
doubt can remain that we have placed the ordination 
of the Sabbath in its proper era, and that it was for a 
sign and a seal of the covenant between God and the 
children of Israel, made in Horeb, and alone challenged 
//?^/r obedience and that of the strangers who sojourned 
within their gates. 

The institution stands acknowledged one of the 
most important and imperative in the Mosaic covenant, 
and was strictly observed and enforced throughout the 
existence of that covenant 

It has already been suggested that it was partly 
punitive as well as memorial, and we may add partly 
politic, for we have seen that God did not order them 
to remain in their houses on the Sabbath until after 
their disobedience in looking, for the manna on that 
day. And as they were, as the. record shows, a most 
unruly people, always murmuring and plotting, we 
may well suppose that keeping them segregated was 
for the purpose of preventing those disorders. At any 
rate, it appears that during the long continuance of the 



B2 History of the Sabbath Day. 

covenant there was a considerable relaxation of its 
restrictions, which might have been considered puni- 
tive or politic, without any express orders that we find 
recorded. 

When the Savior made his advent, the law seems 
to have been that the Israehtes could not only go out 
of their houses, but might go a Sabbath day's journey, 
which is supposed to have been something less than a 
mile. 

No necessity requires us to elaborate the fact of the 
scrupulous observance of the Sabbath throughout the 
whole duration of the Mosaic covenant.* Nor have 
we in this history any thing to do with the duties, 
in regard to it, of those Jews who still reject the 
Savior and claim to be under the law of Moses. 
They have preserved their genealogy, and as they are 
commanded to observe it and to keep it throughout 
their generations, we leave the matter to them and 
their God. It was never applicable to Gentiles, and 
they were never commanded to keep it. And we 
might here close this history, by announcing that in 
A. M. 4004, the promised Messiah came and ended the 
covenant with Moses and set up a new and better 
covenant, thereby blotting out the Sabbath with the 
rest of the Mosaic law. But by some means that 
institution, dead (if, indeed, it was ever alive) to us, has 
been raised from the grave to which our Lord con- 
signed it, and is to-day held to be one of the most 
sacred of Christian institutions. We are therefore 
compelled, in justice to the subject, to appeal to the 
word of God and prove that neither Christ nor any of 
his apostles ever ordained or declared a Christian 
Sabbath, nor any similar institution for Christians. 



History of the Sahhaih Day, 23 



PART SECOJ^D. 



CHAPTER I. 

e^BBOUT twenty-two centuries after Abraham ; fifteen 
^ centuries after Moses, A. M. 4004, came the 
promisd, "seed of the woman," In the person of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The covenant of God with Moses^ 
as well as that with Abraham, was fulfilled in this Di- 
vine person. 

The covenant in Horeb had served the purpose for 
which it was designed, and the Lord come to fulfil it; 
to blot it out; and to establish a new and a better 
covenant. God knew and intended to demonstrate to 
man that he could not be saved by w^orks : because, 
in his fallen nature, it was impossible for him to do 
the works necessary to salvation, viz, to keep the whole 
law perfectly. It was impossible for man to do it, and 
yet it must be done or he could not be saved. The 
apparent impossibility was accomplished by the won„ 
derful and mysterious union of Divinity and humanity, 
in the Son of God and man. who did keep the whole 
law, and yet suffered for the violation of the whole of 
it, so as to become our Mediator and Savior. He was 
descended from Abraham, to whom the promise per- 
tained. ** that in him all the nations of the earth should 
be blessed ;" which covenant w^as long anterior to that 
made in Horeb and designed to last long beyond it, 



^Jj- History of the. Sabbath Bay. 

even to the end of time, and, indeed, throughout 
eternity. 

Obedience perfected Abraliam's faith, but it was his 
fliith which was couiitcd to him for righteousness, and 
on that he was made the father of the faithful In the 
cov^enant with Abraham we have attempted to show 
that there was no Sabbath, as that institution had its 
existence alone in the coverant witli Moses, in Horeb. 

Our Lord, coming as a Jew to fulfil the whole of the 
law, must needs keep th.e Sabbath amongst the rest. 
He was accused by the Jews, indeed, of violating it, 
but successfully vindicated liimself from the charee. 
and at the same time made the significant declaration, 
that *'the Son of man was Lord of the Sabbath,'' 
which has been held by many writers as some sort of 
indication thac the institution was to be perpetuated. 
More probably the remark indicated or hinted that the 
Son of man would soon end it, as, in fact, he did. as 
will be shown in due time. 

The word Sabbath occurs very often in the New 
Testament, but, without a single exception, has refer- 
ence to the Jewish institution of that name. During 
the sojourn of our Savior on earth, indeed, it was ill 
fuUforce and effect; and when we meet with the word 
in the four gospels, there can be no ambiguity as to. 
what it designates. 

When the young man, mentioned in Matt, xix, as 
well as in Mark and Luke, enquired of the Savior' 
what he niust do to inherit eternal hfe, the Savior re- 
plied, ''keep the commandrnents." The young man 
enquired, which? The Lord answered elaborately, 
specifying most of the commandments, leaving out the' 
fourth, and why? The' most ready reason which; 



Jlisiory of the Sahhath Lay. 26 

suggests itself is, that He knew that in a short time 
He would blot out the Sabbath. I Icnce, He purposely 
avoided the shortest answer which He could have 
given, which would have been, ''all of them." The 
principles embodied in all the rest of the decalogue 
were to be re-enacted in the new covenant ; and as the 
Sabbath was not to be, He choses to withhold it on 
that occasion. This opinion I think is strongly sus- 
tained by the fact, that the Sabbath was soon afterwards 
blotted out, and was not re-enacted in the new cove- 
nant. No one will doubt that this answer was deliber* 
ate, and delivered by our Lord officially as God, and 
when He left out the Sabbath, he meant to do it. It 
will be difficult to assign another reason for its omission 
in this important interview, than that He did not intend 
to require obedience to the fourth commandment. 

During the short ministry of cur Lord, he took 
pains to shew the insufficiency of the kuv, and showed 
(see sermon on the mount) how the new kingdom 
which He v/as to set up went far be\*ond mere acts of 
outward obedience, even to the motives which prompted 
them. He reduced the ten commandments to two, 
*/ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, 
and thy neighbor as thyself" 

Although there are principles which are so insepara- 
ble from civilization or even social life, that they must 
be recognized as laws in some shape, still it is true 
that the local code under which we live must try and 
punish offenses. North Carolina and Tennessee, both 
make murder unlawful and punish it. But North 
Carolina can not punish a murder in Tennessee, nor 
Tennessee one in North Carolina. 

So, even murder, under the Mosaic law, is not pun- 



2G Hisiory of the Sahhaih Day* 

ishable under the new covenant; nor murder, under the 
new covenant, punishable under tlie old In a word, 
we contend that the old covenant made in Horeb is 
dead, at least to us, and that not any one article of the 
whole Mosaic law is now obligatory to us as such. 

If we may not lie, steal, or murder, it is not because 
Moses but Christ forbids it. Hence, our Lord only 
forbade the young man such acts as He knew wou'd 
be unlawful under the new covenant, and purposely 
Ijft out the Sabbath, which He knew would not be re- 
tained in it. That it was not so retained we think the 
record abundantly shows. 

Not long after the conversation above detailed, the 
Son of God was crucified, was buried, and was the 
prisoner of death for three days. The last of those 
days was the Sabbath, and in accordance with our 
view of tlie teachings of the Book, the last Sabbath 
on earth, unless it may be that the Jews still claiming 
to be under the law of Moses, may still be judged by it. 

When the Lord *vas accused of violating the Sab- 
bath (vvhich, being a Jevv, he had no right to do). He 
successfully vindicated himself, but at the same time 
declared His lordship over the Sabbath. This declar- 
ation has been often quoted to sustain the »©«»4fl«s^ 
of the institution, but we can not see how. It appears^ 
more probable that it was a premonition of what He^ 
knew he would soon do, viz: nail it to His cross and 
blot it out. So, also. His remark, ** That the Sabbath 
was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." has 
been many times quoted as evidence of its perpetuity' 
and universality, a conclusion so illogical that nothing 
but a determined pre-judgment of the case on the part 
of those (many of them men of acknowledged wis- 



Ilistory of the Sabbat Ji Bay. 27 

dom). can explain. For it is certain that every one 
of those wise men would at once admit, that any law 
addressed to a ir.oral free agent must be made for man, 
whether it be for one man or all men, 

Kvery law of Kngland, Germany and France, in a 
word, all laws of all countries are made for man, and 
none of them are made for all men, but only for the 
citizens or subjects of that particular country. This 
argument, therefore, surely proves nothing except that 
arguments for the Christian Sabbath are not abundant. 
There is one argument pervading every page of the 
New Testament which is invulnerable and insuperable, 
in the absence of positive declaration to the contrary, 
that is, the silence of that Divine book on the subject. 
It has been stated heretofore, that the word Sabbath 
does often occur in the New Testament ; but in every 
instance refers to the seventh-day Sabbath of the Jews, 
But I challenge that there is not in the New Testament 
a single passage which requires a Christian, or admon- 
ishes him. or advises him to observe the Sabbath or any 
Sabbath ; further, that there is not, in all the catalogue 
of sins denounced and forbidden in that sacred book, a 
single reference made to Sabbath breaking or Sabbath 
desecration, or any admonition against such a sin, or 
any hint that there is or can be. under the Christian 
dispensation, such a sin. And if Christ and his apos- 
tles and inspired evangelists did not declare and de- 
nounce such a sin, is it not a most wonderful omission ? 
Could an unprejudiced mind conceive it possible that 
all these divinely inspired authorities could or would 
have forgotten or neglected so important a matter ? 

That the Mosaic covenant, which is called the cove» 
nant of works, has given place to the new covenant. 



B8 History of the Sahhath Day. 

wliicli is called the covenant of grace, is so universally 
admitted amongst Christians, tliat it would seem 
superfluous to argue it ; and yet, from the way in 
which we have the two covenants mixed up in our 
modern conglomerate system of religion, would seem 
to make some argument necessary. Some investigation 
on the part of Christians is certainly necessary, for if 
they will put their minds on that particular point, they 
vvill be very apt to find that they have far more of 
Judaism in their creeds than they think. 

The great apostle to the Gentiles has devoted nearly 
the whole of the letter to Galatians to that subject. 
The reader is respectfully requested to read the epistle 
carefully, with his mind directed to this point. It 
shows that after he had planted the gospel in Galatia^ 
his footprints were scarcely effaced before false teachers 
came in, whom he bitterly anathematizes, and won 
many of them back to the law of Moses. The whole 
letter is devoted to combatting this heresy. Such was 
the power of Judaism, backed up by the wealth and 
teaming of the priesthood; many of whom believed 
on the Lord, but were not all weaned from their love 
and veneration for the law, and perhaps for their fat 
places under it. Even Peter dissimulated about it.- 
Paul quarrelled with him, and Barnabas was also 
carried away by Peter. Gal. ii. 14. *' But when I saw 
that they w^alked not uprightly, according to the truth 
6f the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all; If 
ihou, being a Jew, livcst after the manner of the Gen- 
tiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the 
Gentiles to live as do the Jews ? Knowing that a man 
rs not justified by the works of the law, but by the 
faith of Jesus Christ." 



History of the Sabbath Day, 29 

" O foolish Galatians/* he calls them, and asks, *'who 
hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, 
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently 
set forth, crucified among you." Gal. iii. I. 

24. The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that 
we might be justified by faith. 

29 And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs 
according to the promise. 

The foregoing disjointed quotations are made to 
keep up Paul's line of argument (without quoting too 
extensively), to show that he is debating the very 
question under consideration. 

Gal. IV. I. Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, 
differeth nothing from a servant, thought he be lord of all ; 

2. But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of 
the father. 

3. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under 
the elements of the world ; 

4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth 
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 

5. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive 
the adoption of sons. 

7. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son ; and if a son, 
then an heir of God through Christ. 

8. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto 
them which by nature are no gods. 

9. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known 
of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, 
whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage ? 

10. Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 

11. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in 
vain. 

21. Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear 
the law ? 

22. For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a 
bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. 

23. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh ; 
but he of the freewoman was by promise. 



so History of t7%e Sahhath Bay. 

24. Which things are an sllegory : for these are the two covenants; 
the one from the mount vSinai, which gendereth to bondage, which 
is Agar. 

25. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to 
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. 

26. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother 
of us all. 

27. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that beareth not ; break 
forth and cry, thou that travailest not : for the desolate hath many 
more children than she which hath an husband. 

30. Nevertheless what saith the scripture ? Cast out the bond- 
woman and her son ; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be 
heir with the son of the freewoman. 

31. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman 
but of the free. 

Chap. v. i. Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ 
hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of 
bondage. 

2. Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, (that 
is, come under the law of Moses — parenthises is mine), Christ shall 
profit you nothing. 

3. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he 
is a debtor to do the whole law. 

13. For, brethern, ye have been called unto liberty ; only use not 
liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. 

18. For if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. 

19. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these ; 
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft 
hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like : 

See what a catalogue of sins and crimes the apostle 
makes out, and yet, amongst the large and the small 
offenses enumerated, Sabbath breaking finds no place. 
But, perhaps, if we read the other side, we shall find 
Sabbath keeping commended amongst the Christian 
virtues : 

22. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance : against such 
there is no law. 



History of the Sabbath Day~. S2 

No commendation of Sabbath keeping amongst all 
these virtues. Now, is it conceivable that the apostle 
should have failed, either to condemn so great a sin as; 
Sabbath breaking is supposed to be, or to commend 
the obedience which must have been so universal, if so 
be there was such a law and it was never broken ? 

But is Sabbath keeping no where commanded in the 
New Testament ? No where ! Nor Sabbath breaking 
any where rebuked or condemned ? No where ! 
Surely, then, there must be no Sabbath there to break 
or to keep. 

It has been said, however, that as the Sabbath is- 
not mentioned in Gal, chap. 4, by name, it is not al- 
luded to. It will, however, be readily settled that it 
is, by turning to Coloss. ii, where Paul still exhorteth 
them to beware of phylosophy and vain traditions, and 
legal ceremonies, which are ended in Christ. 

10. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all princi- 
pality and power : 

11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made 
without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by 
the circumcision of Christ : 

12. Buried with him ia baptism, wherein also ye are risen with 
him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised 
him from the dead. 

13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of 
your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, forgiving you all 
trespasses ; 

14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against 
us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing 
it to his cross ; 

16. Let no man, therefore, judge you in meat, or in drink, or in 
respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; 
which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. 

20. ^^"h3refore if ye be dead with Christ, from the rudiments of 
the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to or- 
dinances, after the commandments and doctrines of men ? 



S^S History of the Sahhath Day. 

Herein all cavil is precluded, the Sabbath being 
mentioned by name as one of the ordinances blotted 
out by Christ and nailed to his cross. And not only 
do we find Paul pronouncing this institution blotted 
out, but also find him anathematizing those teachers 
who have introduced Judaism, Sabbath included, into 
the simple gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

The Sabbath, indeed, is far from being all that has 
been taken from the dead covenant in Horeb and fast- 
ened on the Church of Christ ; but as we are writing 
only the history of the Sabbath, it does not fall within 
the scope of our undertaking to discuss other items of 
similar transplantation. 

If other scriptural proofs of the foregoing proposition 
were deemed necessary, they could be abundantly 
found in various other places in the New Testament, 
namely, Heb. ix. 4 — 10; Eph. ii. 15 ; Rom. xiv. 5, etc. 
But it is believed that enough has been quoted to es- 
tablish our proposition, which is. That no sort of a 
Sabbath has any place, either by charater or name, in 
the New Testament, 

It may be asked, then,— What about Sunday ? 



Historij of the Sabhath Day* 3S 



CHAPTER II. 

THE LORD'S DAY. 

|T appears that very many important events in the 
1 history of the pecuHar people of God, took place 
on the first day of the week. On that day, if our cal- 
culation is correct, the children of Israel commenced 
their march of deliverance from Egypt ; on that day 
the manna first fell, which was to serve as bread for 
the children of Isreal for 40 years in the wilderness; 
on that day the Lord rose from the dead ; and on that 
day the Holy Spirit w^as poured out at Pentecost. 

As there was a necessity for the disciples to have 
frequent and stated meetings, and as time was already 
divided into weeks, it would seem almost a matter of 
course that they would meet once a week, and that 
they should select the day which commemorated so 
many striking events, more especially the resurrection, 
the event of all events, on which account John the 
Revelator called it the Lord's day. 

Having been taught by the Savior that the Mosiac 
law with all its types and shadows was fulfilled and 
blotted out, the seventh day was out of the question, 
and nothing could be more natural than the appoint- 
ment of the first day of the week, or Lord's day, and 
nothing could have been more unnatural than that 
they should have called it the Sabbath day. 

But it may be asked, — What is the harm of calling 
it the Sabbath ? What's in a name ? 



5^; History of the Sahhath Day. 

The very effect which that name has produced, is a 
sufficient answer to the question. The name has sent 
the disciples of our Lord to the Old Testament in- 
stead of the New, to learn the duties of the day ; and 
we have, in the Christian church to-day, a great part 
of the Jewish Sabbath in our faith and practice. 

The New Testament, indeed, recognizing no such 
institution, of course prescribes no duties; and if we 
wish to know our Sabbath duties we are obliged to 
dig up the dead covenant. It is true, that our Savior 
did proclaim niore libert}" of action on the Jewish Sab- 
bath, but still it was nothing but the Jewish Sabbath 
which He modified, which he soon afterwards blotted 
out, nailing it to His cross. Besides, if the Holy Spirit 
called our day of convocation First day of the week 
or Lord's day, who had a right to alter the name ? 
And is not the name by which the apostles called it, 
to say the least, as good as any other ? 

The appointment of the day seems so natural and 
appropriate, that it would scarcely require command 
or inspiration to make it. Besides, the Lord met with 
his disciples on the first day of the week, after His 
resurrection, thus, we may say, sanctifying it for the 
purpose of religious worship. Nor is there any doubt 
that it was so appropriated in the days of the apostles. 
There is, nevertheless, no command recorded in regard 
to it in the whole New Testament, unless the admoni- 
tion acrainst neorlectin^f to assemble toother for wor- 
ship is such, and that specified no day : or the sugges- 
tion of Paul, to lay by for charity on the first day of 
the week as the Lord had prospered them. 

There is nothing in the New Testament forbidding 
the performance of any act which the disciples might 



History of the Sctbhath Day, 35 

do on any other day with propriety; and Paul, 
when interrogated on that point, answered, *' Some 
men esteem one day above another ; some esteem all 
days alike, let every one be fully persuaded in his own 
mind." Rom. xiv. 5. 

If Paul did regard days of different value, could he, 
as an honest man, have answered an honest enquirer 
in that language? Certainly not. But the old Jewish 
law of keeping the Sabbath holy, impresses the mind 
of the Sabbatarian Christian ; and he is fain to believe 
that an act, which is not sinful in itself, may become 
sinful by being done on Sunday. 

It surely is an inconsistency, and yet it is of such 
every-day occurrence that it is not noticed as such, 
that the preacher will so zealously denounce idleness 
in one breath, and in the next so importunately urge 
the legislature to more stringently enforce idleness on 
the Sabbath, so called? Without reference to reliable 
statistics it would hardly be unsafe to say, that of the 
population of the United States not one-fourth go to 
church on Sunday; the other three-fourths are posi- 
tively prohibited by law, under pains and penalties, 
from following their usual vocations, they are turned 
loose then to their own devices ; and I think the 
statistics of crime will abundantly show, that more 
crime is committed on that day than any other. It is 
Satan's carnival. 

On the other hand, the Christian delights on that 
day to go to church to meet his brethren and to wor- 
ship God. He needs no law to make him go, but 
only liberty to go. So, if he has a stated meeting on 
any other day of the week he delights to go, and all 
he asks of the State is just to be let alone. 



S6 History of the Sahbath Day 

Those who do not feel drawn to the house of worship 
on Sunday, would in most cases, but for the law. re- 
main peacefully at home, following their daily vocations 
in labor for the support of themselves and families, 
and thereby certainly, to a greater or less extent, re- 
duce the catalogue of crime, pauperism, and famine; 
but the preacher says it is a sin to work on Sunday, 
and the legislature says, you shall not work on Sun- 
day, and Satan reaps his weekly harvest. 

The man who has received the largest ovation of 
honor almost in modern times is the poor laborer who, 
so to speak, invented the Sunday school. And he 
merited all the honor he has received. He saw how 
the children of the city, who were compelled to idle- 
ness by law, were reveling in vice and crime, and the 
divine idea entered his mind to gather them up, and by 
making the Sunday school pleasant to them, turned 
many of them from the worship of Satan to God, and 
many more to morality, decency and order. What he 
did on Sunday would be equally necessary on all other 
days, if the law enforced idleness on the same popula- 
tion on other days. The Sunday school is the great 
antidote to the poison of the Sabbath-day idleness en- 
forced by law. 

The State has the control of the moral and well 
being of the people on all days alike. The constituted 
authorities may make all necessary laws to those ends. 
They may appoint holidays, if in their wisdom they are 
deemed necessary, and regulate them. But it is very 
questionable whether it is not going beyond the proper 
limits of even a constitution, to say that a man shall 
not work for the support of himself and family on any 
day. 



History of the Sahhath Day. 37 

That an immense amount of good to the world is 
accomplished by the Lord's-day meetings, which oc- 
cur all over the Christian world on that day, can not 
be questioned. But let it not be forgotten that the 
meetings could and would take place, as long as there 
are Christians to meet, without any Sabbath laws. As 
already said, Christians need no laws to make them 
meet, but only ask the laws not to infringe their liber- 
ties. To doubt this is to doubt the spiritual power of 
religion. It is Satan's hosts who are benefited by the 
Sabbath laws which have been enacted by our legisla- 
tures, themselves not generally two religious, but act- 
ing under the inspiration of the Christian churches, 
who, it is my purpose to show, if I can, are them- 
selves mistaken. I am quite sure, at least, that no such 
law can be found in the code of our Divine Master, 
Jesus Christ. 

Seeing that the Sabbath has been transferred to the 
Christian code without warrant of the New Testament, 
the question arises, how did it come there ? It would 
have been less strange if it had been transplanted there 
full grown and without change. But Sabbatarians con- 
tend that the day was changed by the apostles from 
the seventh to the first day of the week. It is sufficient 
to vindicate the sacred history by saying, that there is 
no mention in the record of any such change. But 
besides that, we have seen in the first part of this his- 
tory that God did, in several places, tie the Sabbath 
hard and fast to the seventh day; and if our Savior, 
who is God, did not untie it, it would seem scarcely 
possible for even an apostle to do it. Neither Christ 
nor any apostle ever did it ; nor did Christ or any 
apostle ever prohibit secular work on Sunday or any 



^S8 History of the Sabbath Day. 

other day under the new covenant, that I tan find. 
But going out of the inspired writings, I find the fol- 
lowing passage in Eusebius' Life of Constantine, which 
I extract, beginning on page 189: 

He (Constantine) ordained too that one day should be regarded 
as a special occasion for prayer, I mean that which is truly the first 
and chief of all, the day of our Lord and Savior. The entire care of 
his household was intrusted to deacons and other ministers consecrated 
to the service of God and distinguished by gravity of life and every 
other virtue. While his trusty body guard, strong in affection and 
fidelity to his person, found in their emperor an instructor in the practice 
of piety, and, like him, held the Lord's salutary day in honor, and 
performed on that day the devotions that he loved. The same observ- 
ance was recommended by this blessed prince to all classes of his 
subjects, his earnest desire being gradually to lead all mankind to the 
Worship of God, Accordingly he enjoined on all the subjects of the 
Roman Empire to observe the LordJs day as a day of rest, and also to 
honor the day which preceded the Sabbath, in memory I suppose of 
what the Savior of mankind is recorded to have achieved on that day 
(foot note, that day is Friday^. And since his desire was to teach his 
whole army zealously to honor the Savior's day, which derives its 
name from light and from the sun, he freely granted to them who were 
partakers of the divine faith leisure for attendance on the services of 
the church of God, in order that they might be able, without impedi- 
ment, to perform their religious worship. 

This ordinance was proclaimed in March, A.D. 321, 
and I think is the earliest record of the Christian Sab- 
bath so called, ordained by a man who, to say the 
least, was not an apostle, albeit a very powerful patron 
and promoter of Christianity.1 |The same ordinance is 
also recorded in Carmethen's and Lyall's church his- 
tory, both books being found in the Tennessee State 
Library. There is no doubt, however, but that Chris- 
tians before this time met on the first day of the week 
to worship God ; bnt the scripture gives no account of 
their relinquishment of secular work on that day. 



History of the Sahhath Bay. 39 

Afterwards, viz : in A. D. 325, as I am informed with 
satisfactory credibility, although I have been unable to 
find an authentic record, Constantine convened the 
council of Nicaea which he personally attended, and 
with his regal and powerful influence procured the 
adoption of the Christian Sabbath, so called, as a can- 
non of the Christian Church, but do not know whether 
it was called by that conncil Sabbath or Lord's day. 
I do. not doubt that students, with better access to 
biblical history, will be able to verify this fact. 

It is a source of gratification to me, holding, as I do, 
views on this question so deversefrom popular opinion, 
to find myself sustained in the main by so eminent 
an authority as John Calvin, whose orthodoxy is un- 
questioned by so large and respectable a portion of the 
religious world who, nevertheless, have almost unani- 
mously gone back on their great teacher on this ques- 
tion. I beg leave to refer the reader to Calvin's 
Institutes, vol. i, pp. 364, etseq., from which I quote. 

Mr. Calvin, it seems from Stebbin^s History of the 
Life and Times of John Calvin, was accused of being 
opposed to the Christian Sabbath, but afterwards ex- 
plained away the charge. The historian was, no doubt, 
a strong Sabbatarian. It seems, also, that Mr. Calvin 
wrote many editions of his Institutes, in all of which he 
made additions and emendations, as he declares in the 
one from which I quote and w^hich he claims to be the 
most perfect. There appear, in this article, evidences 
of various opinions at different times on the subject. 
But on the whole, the article is in very close accord 
with the views herein expressed. He says, — 



^0 History of the Sabbath Day 

The fathers frequently call it a shadowy conwtand^ because it con- 
tains the external observance of the clay which was abolished with 
the rest of the figures at the advent of Christ. 

The reader is requested to bear this quotation in 
mind, as the writer has not had access to the writings 
of the fathers referred to. Calvin uses such expres- 
sions as this. — 

But all that it contains of a ceremonial nature was, without doubt, 
abolished by the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. For He is the 
truth, at whose presence all figures disappear ; the body, at the 
sight of which all the shadows are relinquished. He, I say, is the 
true fulfilment of the Sabbath. Having been buried with Him by 
baptism, we have been planted together in the likeness of His 
death, that being partakers of His resurrection we may walk in 
newness of life. Therefore, the apostle says in another place, 
that the Sabbath was a shadow of things to cqme, but the body is 
of Christ. 

Again,— 

Christians ought, therefore, to depart from all superstitious ob- 
servance of the Sabbath. 

Again,— 

Though the Sabbath is abrogated, yet it is still customary among 
us to assemble ourselves on stated days for hearing the word, and 
breaking the mystic bread, and for public prayers, and also to allow 
servants and laborers a remission from their labors. 

Again he says, — 

And in the epistle to the Romans he (Paul) asserts him to be 
weak in the faith, who esteemeth one day above another. 

Again, — 

However, the ancients have not, without sufficient reason, sub- 
stituted what we call the Lord's day in the room of the Sabbath. 
For since the resurrection of the Lord, is the end and consumma- 
tion of that true rest which was adumbrated by the ancient Sabbath. 
The same day which put an end to the shadows, admonishes 
Christians not to adhere to a shadowy ceremony. Yet I do not lay 
so much stress on the septenial number, that I would oblige the 
church to an invariable adherence to it ; nor will I condemn those 
churches which have other solemn days for their assemblies, pro. 
vided they keep at a distacce from superstition. 



History of the Sabhath Day. ^1 

Again,— 

Thus vanish all the dreams of false prophets, who in past ages 
have infected the people with a Jewish notion — affirming that noth- 
ing but the ceremonial part of this commandment, which according 
to them is the appointment of the seventh day, has been abrogated, 
but that the mcral part of it, that is the observance of one day in 
the seven, still remains. But this is only changing the day in con- 
tempt of the Jews, while they retain the same opinion of the 
holiness of a day ; for on this principle, the same mysterious sig- 
nificance would still be attributed to particular days, which they 
formerly obtained among the Jews. And we see what (dis?) advantages 
have arisen from such a sentiment. For those who adhere to it far 
exceed the Jews in a gross, carnal and superstitious observance of the 
Sabbath. 

The principal thing to be remembered, he says, — 

Is the general doctrine that lest religion decay or languish among us, 
sacred assemblies ought to be held, and that we onght to use those 
external means which are adapted to support the worship of God. 

It is worthy of remark, that when Moses instituted 
the Jewish Sabbath, that important point, segregating 
the vicious, entered into his plan which indeed was 
God's plan. They were not compelled to idleness and 
left to roam at large, seek vicious companions and plot 
mischief; but every one required to stay in his own 
place. No doubt such would be God's will, if He 
thought it necessary to compel abstinence from secu- 
lar labor in our day, which shows how much superior 
to man's devices are those of God. He, however, has 
not thought proper to make, certainly not to reveal 
any such law to us. But He has cast our lot in the 
most favored of all lands ; He has given us his word 
in our own tongue ; has given us freedom to construe 
it and to worship Him according to the dictates of our 
own consciences, being answerable to Him alone; at 
least this is the theory of our government. It is true 



Jj.^ History of the Sabbath Bay, 

that we have strayed somewhat from our liberal pro- 
fessions, and it is to be hoped that we will make haste 
to return to tlie glorious principles embodied in our 
Constitution, which guarantees to every man these 
rights. When a Jew can be compelled to keep a Gen- 
tile religious institution, that principle is violated. 
And even if our preachers were right in their views on 
a Christian Sabbath (which they are not), it would 
still be wrong for them to call on the secular arm to 
enforce any dogma of religion ; and the secular arm 
is wrong in heeding any such call. 

Let the clergy take care of religion under the guid- 
ance of the word of God — rather, let each free moral 
agent take care of his own religion under that guid- 
ance. ^ And let these United States adhere to that 
glorious principle, which in all our constitutions de- 
clares eternal separation between Church and State. 

And now the task which I have undertaken is fin- 
ished, for the present at least. The question discussed 
is not like some of those in the scriptures, which in- 
volve the deeper mysteries of Divinity ; such, for in- 
stance, as the line of demarcation between the sov- 
reignty of God and the free agency of man, or between 
God's foreknowledge and His predestination. These, 
perhaps, Paul, having been taken up into the third 
heaven, may have understood ; but if he did, it w^ould 
have been impossible for him to make them clear to 
the uninspired mind. On them we must humbly have 
faith that God knows, and take His declarations on 
trust. Not so with regard to the Sabbath. That was 
a plain law, addressed to man the moral agent, for 
him to understand and obey. It was, in unmistakable 



History of the Sahhath Day. J^S 

language, declaratlvely fore ordained by God at the 
end of the first week of creation. Twenty-live hun- 
dred \'ears afterwards it was plainly ordained in the 
wilderness, the time, place and wonderful and marvel- 
lous circumstances all declared and recorded. A few 
weeks after this, reiterated amidst the thunders and 
lightnings of mount Sinai ; its observance enforced by 
the heaviest penalty known to the law, and so con- 
tinued for fifteen hundred years, or until the end of the 
Mosaic covenant. Then the Savior came, and while 
the earth quaked, the sun was darkened, and the veil 
of the temple was rent. He '' blotted it out, took it 
out of the zuay beeause it zvas against 21s, nailing it to 
His cross!' 

All this is as plainly w^ritten down as words can make 
it, so that '' he who runs may read ; and a wayfaring 
man, though a fool, need not err therein." Nor have 
I been able to find any scriptures which contradict or 
seem to contradict this succession of events. The old 
covenant writings are full of the Sabbath, because it 
WAS. The new covenant writings are entirely silent 
in regard to it, because it is not. And now, while I 
have no doubt that most of my devout and sincere 
brethren will think me anti- Christ or w^orse for thus 
writing, yet do I humbly and prayerfully dedicate it to 
God, praying Him to overrule any error it may con- 
tain, so that it may not injure or hinder an immortal 
soul ; and that He will bless whatever truth it may 
contain, to the advancement of His cause and king- 
dom to the glory and honor of His name. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



Since the foregoing pages were put to press, under a 
pseudo-nyine^ I have, at the suggestien of a few partial 
friends, concluded, if time and circumstances shall 
favor, at a future day to continue the subject herein 
discussed more elaboratelj. 

Wliile in this little work I have attempted but little 
more than the discussion of the subject in its scrip- 
tural aspects, I shall in the one contemplated attempt 
to shew that nature and philosophy, morality and re- 
ligion all speak the same language as do the scriptures, 
and to deduce some of the corollaries which flows from 
the premises. 

My facilities for consulting ancient authorities, on 
account of my insulated position, are not so good as I 
could wish, therefore I solicit correspondence Avith all 
such persons as may be able and willing to aid me in 
the investigation, by referring me to fact's, and books, 
and extracts, Avhich I may not be able to obtain. 
Furthermore, as I wish neither to deceive others nor 
to be myself deceived, I invite candid criticism from 
all sources. For all these reasons I append my name 
and address. 

GEO. D. CROSTHWAIT, M.B. 

Florence Statioiv, 

Rutherford Co., Tenn, 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1879, in the office of 
the Librarian of Congress, at AVashington. 



A SUCCINCT HISTORY 



OF 



THE SABBATH DAY 



CAREFULLY COMPILED FROM THE OLD 
AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 



**Ye shall not add to the word which I command you, neither 
j shall ye diminish aught from it, that ye may keep the command- 
ments of the Lord your God which I command you." — Deut. 



IV. 2. 



*'And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of 
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of 
life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are writ- 
ten in this book. — Rev. xxii. 19. 



■*•»- 



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